If you’ve ever dreamed of running your own business but never had the time, money or opportunity then you may be in luck. As it’s done in countless industries around the world, IT technology has made it possible for anyone to do almost anything and in 2016 that luxury has been afforded to small business owners.
While the advent of modern technology can’t quite guarantee your business will blossom, it can help you turn a dream into reality. So why is a small business now within the reach of more people? In a nutshell: computers. In the past, the barriers to entry for any aspiring entrepreneur were often access to information, hardware costs, communication, and promotion.
However, as it stands today, setting up a business doesn’t mean finding an office, buying lots of pieces of computers and hiring multiple members of staff. Thanks to cloud computing, helpdesk software and social media, the set-up, organisation and promotion of your business can be done with a handful of resources.
When it comes to pieces of technology that allow small businesses to compete with major corporations, cloud computing is by far the most important. Essentially a means of sharing data and resources through an online service; cloud computing now allows businesses to run everything from the team meetings to their security from a remote location.
For example, simple conferencing and task management platforms like Slack now give business owners the ability to manage a team online. Employing a freelancer is much more cost effective than a permanent member of staff, and when you combine remote workers with a cloud service like slack, it removes the need for a physical office. Having the ability to manage a team online is not only more cost-effective but more efficient as it’s easier for everyone to set, track and report on tasks.
In line with making a business more efficient, helpdesk solutions have become an essential tool for the small business owner in recent years. Having an online system to manage your business is great, but if something goes wrong and the system goes down it can cost you money. In fact, according to an IHS study or mid-to-large businesses in the US, the annual cost of downtime across the country in 2015 was $700 billion.
Essentially, staying online is crucial if you own a business and that’s why helpdesk solutions are virtually important for entrepreneurs. For example, SysAid’s solution provides support staff with an automatic ticketing system that can set tasks on an order of merit. Using a simple click-and-set rule system, a technician can tell the software to order tickets based on the issue.
Having a system like SysAid‘s in place means that support staff have to worry less about organising their workload and spend more time addressing the most important issues. The result is a business that isn’t offline as much and is, therefore, more profitable.
The final resource every modern businessperson should be taking advantage of in 2016 is social media. Instead of spending thousands, even millions, to promote your product or services to the masses, social media lets you do it for free.
Of course, setting up an effective social media campaign isn’t simply a case of sending out a few tweets and Facebook posts. However, with some light reading and timely messages, shining a light on your business can be done by virtually anyone. Indeed, it used to be the problem that businesses could do everything right but then suffer because no one would be able to hear about them.
Social media has made it possible for businesses to promote themselves to millions (there are 313 million Twitter users online each month alone) without the expense and that should be seen as one of the most important benefits of modern technology. As we’ve said, the latest IT solutions won’t guarantee your success in the business world, but they can certainly make it an affordable and achievable reality if you use the right services.
